The goal of this project is to study the ways by which the peasants of the department of the Seine-et-Oise (France) grew, over the course of the 19th century, to accept the ministrations of modern medicine. I have already completed a socioeconomic and demographic study of one village in this area (see my book Village on the Seine: Tradition and Change in Bonnieres, 1815-1914, to be published in September 1978 by Cornell University Press). This new project endeavors to explore the biomedical aspects of the social and economic life of the countryside of the Paris basin. I have analyzed the records of the hospital at Mantes-la-Jolie (Seine-et-Oise), and have concluded that by 1860, little had been done to make peasants open to seeking out hospitalization. The hospital administrators, however, were optimistic about eventually convincing the peasants of the worth of the hospital. I have also analyzed several hundred reports written by public health doctors and administrators on the reactions of peasants to the various epidemics of the nineteenth century. These data, which treat serious illnesses such as the cholera epidemics and more routine epidemic diseases, give a vivid view of doctor-patient relations in the countryside. My monograph will also include material on the campaign for smallpox vaccination, the organization of a public health service and a service of free medical care for the poor, and possibly obstetrical care.